I dont have ammo shortage. I use sniper/hunting/combat shotgun. Every third hit is a critical, plus i have a maxed out sneak so first shot is autocritical. I think ive seen every kind of head explosion from all the 360 degrees.

I took the robotics expert perk so now i just switch of the drones. And i found the schematics for a deathclaw glove. Pity i have no melee skills.

I'm still playing my chick. On hard this game is much more of a challenge... I find myself eating all my food and using my stim packs quite a bit. I'll end up clearing an area, then sleeping in a recently-liberated bed to heal up before going further.

I headed south of Megaton since that was an area I didn't explore too heavily. I already found a base of outcasts and the ruins of a small city... I never found the outcasts before so that's a nice new thing. Though I want to be melee, I find myself using shotguns and such because I just can't stand toe to toe for long... I can take down 2-3 people, but then I'm pretty hurt. With a pistol or shotguns I can take down more. I'm sure as I bring my skills up and loot better weapons that'll change.

I've been playing on hard from the start too with this character. I find it much more enjoyable. On 'normal' combat didn't seem much of a challenge anywhere in the game, except perhaps when surrounded by 4 deathclaws. The fact that I was pretty good at energy weapons and got my hands on the most powerful plasma rifle in the game at a relatively early stage probably had something to do with it, tho.

Now, combat is delightfully challenging. Regular super mutants are still a breeze with my flamer+pyromaniac perk but the Brutes and Masters are HARD. I was doing the Reilly's Rangers quest yesterday and down in the hotel lobby we ran into a pack of super mutants, one of which a Master with a minigun. At 100 big guns, 2 ranks of demolitions expert and 70% weapons condition I fired three friggin' missiles straight unto his body and he survived them. barely, but still. Had to finish him off with a minigun. Tough cracker. I haven't met a deathclaw yet in this game but I can imagine they're gonna make me cry (as a melee char you might do so even more).

With the lower medicine skill and taking more damage, I (like Satis) spend a lot more time eating and sleeping. And using less direct tactics, and conserving ammo (the amount of ammo that goes into killing a brute or master is insane). Stimpacks are low now, I still find them but I use a lot more with less effectiveness. At the end of my previous game I had 220 (!) stimpacks. I barely ever pack more than 10 at a time this time.


More specifically about my game: playing more, and still finding new stuff. Can you believe I never made it the Capitol in my previous game? Just never occured to me. heh. Doing quests I didn't do before, and I still have to find a lot of stuff you guys mentioned. I'm thinking about dropping by Fort Constantine in a bit. Also made every DIY weapon in the game and some are really neat as backup or special purpose weapon. I like the dart gun especially. Some are just overpowered, tho. A bottlecap mine or a nuka grenade do INSANE damage.

I invested the max amount in the weapons, armor and scrap traders at Canterbury Commons. I was still a little underwhelmed by the stuff they pack but it did get a lot better. Also, their repair skills are the best in the entire game (Crazy Wolfgang has 75 repair!).


*HUGE SPOILER WARNING*


Satis, what did you think about the ending? I have mixed feelings. The assault on the Jefferson memorial with Liberty Prime leading the way is fucking glorious. Simply awesome. The way he lobs the nukes etc...

On the flip side: you barely had to move a finger. he cleared the entire way for you...only inside the rotunda you faced some opposition and even that was a joke if you had good energy weapons skill. The ending was a bit anticlimactic, too. I just fought through downtown DC, a whole squad of Enclave soldiers in power armor and the last thing standing between the purifier and me is...a guy in a standard officer's uniform. I headshotted him in one go. Then I refused to go into the chamber. I was like "hell no, i'm not going in there". Neutral and self-saving...that's my character. So Lyons sacrificed herself...poor girl.

I'm curious what will happen if you go down a different path (ie go with the president's plans). I loved how the ending somewhat stressed your cowardice btw. Well, my cowardice.

*spoilers*

I agree, though the huge robot rocked, it made the end way too easy. I was expecting having to protect him from hordes of enclave, but no, I just walked in his shadow.

the radiation chamber made even less sense. At that point I had a super mutant friend who was immune to radiation... he was standing right next to me. He could've done that and survived with no ill effects. Kinda lame. I tried both endings... going in myself and making her die.

On my new char, I just slaughtered craterside supply. Killed the merc first (who I suspect is the android from a quest in rivet city), killed some guy that was hanging out in there, then stalked and killed moira. I of course robbed the place blind, but that's where I save and quit. I'm not sure if all of megaton will be coming after me or not.

SPOILER

Heh, yeah, I wondered about the mutant. He wouldn't come with me because I wasn't good (neutral), I only met him outside where he was toasting enclave guys with his awesome laser minigun. Doesn't he say something like "this is your destiny, not mine" when you ask him about the chamber? I think I read that somewhere. At least that would make it SOMEWHAT plausible. Not like in FC2 where you can kill yourself or, alternatively, kill yourself.

You don't know who the android is yet? Good luck finding it. It's a cool quest, and the quest rewards are incredible (both for 'saving' it and giving him up to the ones searching for it). As for the megaton people going hostile: yeah, they will, but if you leave town and then return later they'll be neutral again. It's the same for all other towns. But maybe some places are an exception (like Underworld) but i obviously haven't tried everything yet. Saving and loading might possible do the trick as well. So you can still 'use' the town after killing a character. Which is cool.

I finished the android quest, i let him know who he was. Its a very well done side quest. Actually most of the sidequests are done really well, i hope that Bioware takes heed of this game when working on Mass Effect 2.

Make no mistake, F3 is the game of the year by far, its one of the best games of 2003-2008 but to me personally, Mass Effect is my kind of game. Flying off to discover distant stars and stuff is somewhat of a dream of mine. I have never dreamt of living in post-apocalyptica wasteland.

heh, I've dreamed of both.

*spoilers*

is there any point in even having spoiler warnings any more? Anyway... when I loaded and left Craterside Supply the town wasn't mad. I talked to the guy's widow and she was all distraught about how he recently passed away. Recently being like 10 minutes game time.

So anyway, I robbed her place blind, decided not to shell out the 1,000 caps to recruit the merc as a follower, and blew up megaton. That's another 1.000 caps for me. I never bothered pursuing the main quest, but whatever. :p Now that I have a room, I plan on just striking out and exploring the wasteland.

Hey, is there any point to the various radio towers? I activated a few, but it just sounds like morse code. Anyone run into any quests regarding these?

yeah, fuck spoilers I suppose. The radio towers...they all are transmitters over short distance. Once you activate them, navigate (using the signal strength) to where the signal is the strongest. Usually it's within a 20-30m radius of the tower, some tunnel or sewage grating or whatnot. There you'll find a transmitter and (usually) some dead. And some goodies.


GG on megaton. Apparently tho (I've never seen it), Moria escapes the blast and is ghoulified if you don't kill her. You can still get the missions and everything. Serves us right for being a murdering asshole, I suppose. Even with a minimum of bartering skill you can become very wealthy as an evil character...hint: working for the slavers of Paradise Falls will go a long way.

I finally found Oasis...man, that place is tucked away alright. But you were right, wonderful quest and nice meeting Harold again. I chose to kill him, and then I killed the entire bunch of nutjobs. I kinda killed everyone in Arefu too. I've come to the point that there are only 3 places I can really trade anymore: Rivet City, Tenpenny and Paradise Falls (only after providing the guy there with 20 chinese rifles and a decent stock). Oh and the roving traders, obviously.

Still wandering around and doing stuff here and there...pursuing the MQ atm for some good XP and to see how 'different' it can be done in the end. Oh and the Enclave are in town...I love their deathclaw cages.

More remarks:

- Cleared fort constantine. Got the goodies there.
- Deathclaws are an absolute NIGHTMARE on hard. They survive up to 4 direct missile hits and are fast and deadly. I usually took them out by using bottlecap mines or the dart gun. Very effective
- Now that I have the 'sandman' perk i'm gonna try and kill almost everyone in the Citadel in their sleep. Fun times.
- Dart gun: pure ownage. If you're gonna make weapon it's that one...cripples every opponent immediately on both legs with a hit. Ideal to take out fast melee opponents like deathclaws, bears and mutants.


questions:

- has anyone managed to gain access to the BoS outcasts base? I trade shitloads of tech with them (for nades) and they look favorably upon me now in the wastes, but I haven't managed to actually enter their fort yet.
- what are your favorite weapons? I love my 'named' minigun (Eugene) and really enjoy blowing shit up with my custom-made explosives (bottlecap mines, nuka grenades). I always pack a few for the REALLY hard to kill ones like Deathclaws, Sentry bots and Super Mutant Masters. A lot more effective than wasting a ton of ammo on them.
-have you guys seen more than 2 (different) behemoths in-game yet? I've seen the one at GNR, one imprisoned in a raider camp but that's it...


Pics attached

Some more pics...mostly views. How I love this game.

There is one behemoth near takoma factory or something.

Ok, thanks. I'll go check that out. I did the MQ up until the last part with this second character, reached level 20 and got me the "explorer" perk. Now the entire map is revealed, and I can start my further exploration adventures.

I'm slowly becoming super-rich off Enclave armors are whatnot, and I even met a creatures I hadn't even seen so far. Check the pics.

Ive seen the queen. there are a few of them.

Isn't there an ant queen on that one quest.. err.. with the scientist that accidently made the ants aggressive by trying to shrink them. The one with the kid you have to find a home for.

ye thats one, the second was in a factory of somekind.